Special Note: If you have not yet read the Prelude to the actual gameplay adventure, you can do so by clicking here before continuing to read the Episode 01 Recap below. It may help bring the story into context.

As the companions left the Hogshead Inn, Selene struggled to read the ambiguous directions the map was trying to convey to her. The sketching itself was actually much more useful depicting what the Temple would look like once they arrived; not so much how to actually get there. Of course this was nobody's fault, as the map was old and weather-beaten almost beyond reading. Where the traveling merchant Otto Von Otto had obtained such a relic was probably just as interesting if not more so than the map itself. But Kaar was certainly not going to be coerced to go back and ask the man anything further related to the map, especially after the deal he made to acquire it. No; Selene would just have to do her best to match up what few landmarks there were with what she was seeing and hope for the best. That about fit the group's luck as of late anyway, so she bit her lip and trudged forward in the muck that was the Southern Thornwood. More marshy swamp than actual forest in this area, traveling was a chore; but the Iosan made her way at a respectable pace despite the conditions. Behind her, Derby still stewed over the embarrassment she suffered at the card table earlier in the day. In the hours that passed since leaving Flatiron Downs, Magnus had educated the young gambler as best he could on how the locals had cheated. It was all the group could do to keep Derby from marching straight back to the tavern to reclaim "her" money as she saw it. Thankfully, Alexandra and Magnus had convinced her the cheaters were probably long gone with her coin by now, and none of the local people would ever help an outsider over one of their own. Still, Derby was bound and determined to find her way back someday and seek her retribution on the dirty thieves. Kaar, a friend of Derby's for close to four years now, found it interesting how her mind worked. She was of course herself a thief by trade, but her way of rationalizing her pilfering over what had been done to her was fascinating and made little sense to the lawful dwarf. He chalked it up to being a "human" thing - and concentrated on keeping a cheery attitude even though he was a miserable sod at the moment. Trudging through this murky water was bad enough, but for someone of his girth and weight, it was closing in on torture.

It was about 11pm when Selene stopped the group, a bit confused at what she was seeing in terms of landmarks. Due to the incredibly hot and humid weather in this part of Cygnar during the peak of summer, the group traveled mostly at night; and between the constant drizzle of rain, the darkness, and the sorry excuse for a directional map she was using, it was a small miracle it took the Iosan mage hunter this long to finally get lost. And lost she was. By Scyrah was she ever. It didn't take long for Kaar to come slogging up from the rear of the party, his beard a soggy tangle of hair, mud, leaves, and bugs. "How's it goin' there lass? Somethin' got ya' spooked?"

"I think I may have taken a wrong turn a ways back," was all she said, staring at the map as if something on it would miraculously change if she glared at it menacingly enough. "Maybe this would be a good place to stop and take a break. I can look around and see where I went wrong while the rest of you break."

Kaar took a peak at the the disheveled map. It was made of thin leather; probably the only reason it had survived this long. He could tell it was old and in pretty bad shape, but had no idea just how old. Selene lowered it a bit so he could get a better look. The dwarf might as well have been studying a knitting pattern. He remembered those from his mum, who had been weaving garments since he was little. And just like those intricate sewing patterns, he had almost no idea what he was supposed to be seeing. It looked like a bunch of lines and blocks to him, with the occasional sentence written in a language he didn't remotely understand. Probably Shyr, considering Tanis seemed to have little trouble reading it. He gave a mock "mmm, hmmm," and nodded his head, as if to suggest he had something to offer. Then, in a jovial tone full of hope; "Nonsense, Lass!" he finally replied to her suggestion of taking a rest. In truth, he wouldn't have minded a break to clean himself (and his beard) up. But he was the one who got everyone into this, and he wasn't about to show any signs of negativity right now. "We're just fine. Let's backtrack and get to a point where you DO recognize something again and we'll go from there." Kaar patted her on the behind and informed the rest of the party of their slight venture off-course as he returned to his place in the marching order.

After about 30 minutes of backtracking, the Elf was able to get her bearings again and the group headed out in what appeared to be the correct direction this time. They traveled for another two and a half hours when they thought about stopping for a break to eat. Magnus spotted a rather tall tree close to where they were taking a short rest and pulled out his spyglass. Pointing to the tree he announced, "I'm going to go take a look; see if I can spot anything from a better vantage point." The drizzling rain had ceased, but it had made climbing the tree a slippery proposition to be sure; and Magnus got about a third of the way up before unceremoniously losing his grip. Selene took the device from the investigator and proceeded to try to climb the tree herself. About a quarter of the way up, she lost her footing and came tumbling down in a heap. It was probably exactly what the group needed to lighten the mood, but before anyone could say anything humorous, she handed the spyglass back to Magnus with a scowl on her face, saying simply, "That tree is not meant to be climbed." Nobody else even bothered giving it a try.

A few minutes later, spotting a rock that actually had some height to it and looked to be easily scaled, Magnus ran to its highest point and began to peer into the night. The multiple moons of Caen shown bright this night, and helped him to finally make out what may have been a pillar of stone off in the distance. Normally it would have been quite hard to discern, but among nothing other than trees and swamp water, it was just barely noticeable to the keen-eyed investigator. When Selene verified it was in the general direction the map seemed to be leading them, the group decided they would make for the structure and eat dry rations while they walked. Three more hours crawled by as the group's progress was slow-going at best, when an unmistakable stone pillar came into view. This had to be it! About this time, the party noticed the swamp-like conditions were beginning to give way to more trees and the forest proper, making the relaxing sounds of wild birds a treat, but visibility atrocious. With the sun due up in about an hour's time by Selene's calculation, the team decided this would be a great place to stop, take a long break, and have a real meal before venturing forward onto the ruined temple grounds. Selene Tanis long ago gave up trying to educate her companions about proper procedure when attempting to stay inconspicuous in a woodland setting; so the cooking fire the Dwarf started in order to prepare their meal hardly phased her. In truth, with the exception of herself, the party was a collection of city-dwellers through and through. Having no concept of how to travel in the wilds was an understatement of massive proportions when describing her team. She had simply learned to live with it. But like so many other times, and to her sheer amazement every time, nothing happened. It was an uneventful meal they enjoyed together as the sunlight poked it's way through the trees. "Shake a leg! Let's get movin' people," came the predictable bellow from the dwarf as they finished up their food.

It didn't take more than 10 minutes more of travel through the thick and knotted trees when the temple ruins came into full view. The remnants of a stone wall with two pillars on either side of what had once likely been some sort of gate stood directly in front of the party. Wasting no time, each member of the group more excited than the last, they moved forward into what could best be described as a ruined outer courtyard of some sort. There was nothing of import in this area other than a vast open space of dirt and some cracked stone on the ground, with the forest trees serving as "walls" to their right and left. In front of them past the open space, the remnants of an inner courtyard made a much deeper impression on the team. Four crumbling pillars stood in front of the court area, every bit of 15 feet in height. Two additional pillars were completely down, nothing more than piles of rubble among the broken stone that was once some sort of thoroughfare. Further ahead, a rectangular structure that looked to be a stone pool lay in front of the group and had collected rainwater to the point of overflowing. With the thunderstorm now past them, the water lay like a stagnant pool with leaves and driftwood floating on the surface. Magnus moved in to inspect the pillars while Selene approached the pool to take a closer look.

Symbols adorned the pillars in a circular pattern, almost as if they were conveying some sort of message. Magnus did not recognize the markings as anything he had ever studied or seen before, and after Kaar, Selene, and Alexandra all took a look as well, it was decided the symbols were some type of language they would not be able to interpret. Meanwhile, Derby Sway had not yet entered the inner courtyard, content on letting her team do the initial cursory investigation while she kept her senses focused on possible encounters of a more hostile nature. At the moment, all seemed quiet except the rustling of the warm wind. The rain had done nothing to cool the temperature, and she wondered if the heavy precipitation had actually made things even worse. They had no means to take the temperature, but it felt like one of the Workshop's many steam-generation rooms to Derby.

The rest of the group was now scattered throughout the courtyard, each searching the area for clues of where they should be heading next. After such a long journey, the excitement of finding ruins that may have not been tread upon for hundreds of years filled the investigation team with excitement. Past the pool of water, Selene was now inspecting the ruined steps that were leading further into what the map indicated was the ancient temple proper. They lead to a landing which housed five more pillars, all miraculously still standing. Magnus studied what remained of the marble tiles on the ground, quickly discerning this temple had once been the scene of a terrible battle. From the looks of it, this entire structure had to be at least 200 years old, and quite probably double that. They say that Iosan's have some kind of sixth sense; and if there is any truth to that, Selene Tanis must have had some type of inner alarm go off. Looking around and sniffing the air, the hunter dropped to a knee and began searching the area for tracks. It took less than 20 seconds to discern that this entire place was covered in footprints of some type of wild animal, and recently at that. After calling out to her party of her discovery, Derby finally made her way into the inner courtyard, giving the ancient markings on the pillars a cursory look. Shocked, she stopped in her tracks, recognizing the symbols as clear as day. "These symbols are Menite," she called to her friends. "That explains why none of you could interpret them. My menite deciphering skills are pretty rusty, but there is no doubt these are some type of protection glyphs, their magic long faded by now."

"How do ye know that for certain, lass?" the dwarf asked quickly, putting his hand instinctively on the stock of his long rifle.

"Because our gunmage would be lit up like a steamjack's powercore if they weren't," she answered with a laugh. "The way he had his hands all over those glyphs, if they were still active - trust me, we'd know."

"That's comforting," Mags said dryly, making a mental note not to let his excitement get in the way of his better judgement from this point forward during his investigation.

As Derby made her way to the westernmost pillar to see if it's symbols were the same as the rest, she looked up in shock as a giant grey wolf easily twice her size came loping out of the treeline not 10 feet away from where she was kneeling. Before she could even issue a warning, the wolf bore it's teeth and let out an ear-splitting howl the likes of which the party had never heard in their lives. While this took the entire group by surprise, only the young thief seemed negatively affected. Perhaps it was due to the fact that this giant wolf was now only 5 feet away from her, or because of something else; but Derby Sway was suffering from a severe case of anxiety that nearly paralyzed her with fear as she let out a scream. The good news: her friends certainly knew the giant wolf was there now.

The Strangelight Investigators were no strangers to physical encounters that resulted in combat; although their experiences were almost exclusively limited to dealing with ruffians in the bad parts of Ceryl or the occasional Khadoran scouting party that did not take kindly to Cygnarans trespassing into their kingdom uninvited. This however was something entirely different, and to all of them except Selene, seemed straight out of an 'Explorer's Tales' book. Nevertheless, this was not something that was going to go away because the party wasn't prepared for it, and traveling in the wilderness had just gotten very, very real.Seeing it's howl had the desired effect on the tasty morsel kneeling directly in front of it, the male dusk wolf wasted no time lunging at Derby Sway, planning to clamp down on her neck with it's muscular jaw and razor sharp teeth. Unfortunately for the creature, it's next meal was instinctively quicker than any human opponent he had ever faced before. Not even a half-second before the wolf's jaws closed around her tiny throat, the dexterous thief rolled away, spinning her body up to her feet and disengaging from the wild animal in one deft motion. Before the beast could even react to Derby's escape, it was suddenly slammed by a force of energy from the sky itself. Bright golden light in the shape of a curved blade sliced into the creature, and Alexandra Raines managed a brief smile as she felt the holy symbol of Morrow heat up around her neck. The rest of the party was springing into action as well, moving in unison to engage the gigantic wolf in their own way.

It became obvious quite quickly that this is exactly what the dark grey predator wanted its prey to do the moment three more wolves, all smaller in size and the color of night, sprinted out from the forest in different places along the courtyard treeline. The first creature lunged directly at Selene Tanis, luckily missing her by a wide margin as she effortlessly sidestepped away from it's attack. The next black wolf sprinted across the courtyard and swiped at Alex, ripping into her armor, and causing the Priestess of Morrow to gasp as the beast bore it's fangs, saliva dripping from it's elongated mouth. Magnus, who was heading in the opposite direction to engage the Alpha male, immediately spun on his heels at the sound of his sister taking damage and let loose with a magical bullet inscribed with the potent magics of a gunmage. The bullet struck hard and true, knocking the creature back from Alexandra over 15 feet as the impact shattered the creature's ribcage. The loud echo of the BOOM from the magelock had not even left the winds as Selene drove her elven longsword deep into the back of the wolf that had wildly attacked her and missed. The creature was bleeding profusely from the wound, but to her amazement was not yet dead. Before she could even wrench her blade free for another attack, Magnus caught a glimpse of the towering grey wolf as it charged him from behind. He was able to twist his body to avoid the full force of the blow, but not enough to miss the lunge entirely as the Alpha's tremendous power nearly took him from his feet; excruciating pain cascading from his upper torso and up into his brain, causing him to see stars.

It took Alexandra no time at all to come to her brother's aid, standing directly behind him and laying her hands on his upper back. Soothing light dispersed from her fingers and into the gunmage's body, immediately removing the dazed effect from Magnus, and physically healing his wounded frame. If anyone would have been watching the three combatants from afar, it would have been obvious they had been fighting together for some time, working as a cohesive unit to face the threats in front of them. Meanwhile, now recovered from the initial shock of the encounter, Derby pulled her small pistol and discharged two quick rounds at the wolf previously blasted by Magnus. Both shots flew just high of their target, and Derby cursed herself for misjudging the shots. Wanting to react to the encounter as quickly as possible, Kaar kept his rifle stowed on his back and instead unleashed two Arcantrik Bolts of energy at the injured wolf near Selene. Both magic missiles missed their target, striking large trees behind the dark wolf, causing bark to splinter high into the air. Before the dwarf could finish his litany of Rhulish curses, the wounded wolf that had been knocked back by Maggy's magical round moved to the Dwarf and bit into his shoulder with its sharp incisors. Thankfully, Kaar's armor absorbed most of the bite, and the stout dwarf all but shrugged off the attack. Meanwhile, Selene's target now stood and swiped it's huge claw at the mage hunter, striking hard and fast and ripping past the elf's leg protection, damaging her upper thigh. The battle would continue like this for a time, the Investigators eventually getting the better of the beasts; with both Selene and Magnus dropping two of their foes almost simultaneously.

Meanwhile, Magnus continued to struggle against the Alpha wolf, taking blow after blow from the giant beast that he was clearly no match for in single combat. Thankfully, Alexandra would never leave her brother's side, continuing to heal him with her divine magic as he continued to get clawed and bitten by the physically dominating creature. Alexandra was quickly tiring however, and could not keep up the magical aid much longer. Seeing his friends in need of assistance, and watching Derby and Magnus strike at the creature to no avail, Kaar Ironfist pulled his dwarven axe from his belt loop and let out a Rhulish warcry; dealing a wicked death blow to the monstrous beast as the axe blade struck an artery, causing the Alpha to drop dead in a twitching heap. As the final black wolf that had started the encounter on the far side of the courtyard finally joined the fray - with every intent on killing the stocky axe-wielder; Magnus's magelock BOOMED again, striking the charging animal in the head and splattering it's brains across the stone wall of the murky pool.

As quickly as it had started, the battle was over; and the group of city-dwellers, perhaps for the first time since they left on their journey, felt painfully out of place in these ancient and wild lands. They stared at each other without saying a word for quite some time as Alexandra walked around and administered to each of their wounds one at a time. As was her habit, she hummed a comforting hymn of Morrow as she tended to her companions, helping to soothe their minds as she nursed their bodies. None of the team was badly hurt in the skirmish, and would take a few more minutes to rest before climbing the steps into the temple proper, prepared to finish what they set out weeks ago to accomplish.